h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's good to see you back in action, Pinn!

I suppose this story is the kind of thing best described as 'a learning experience'!

Ah Pinn! Beautifully written article as always.

Strange coincidence, I just mentioned your name, in conversation with mvp on my journal.

She mentioned your name at the meet, in fact, with reference to the curiously titled writing competition, The Stretcher.

We were talking about the worlds within worlds which have sprung up on h2g2 over the years.

The Stretcher sounds completely terrifying to me, because I understand it was fiercely competitive, but I'm hoping you folks will start it again, so I can watch you getting all competitive and I can run away and go sensitive. haha

?? Off topic? Yes, I know. Sorry.

I got thrown out of the Stretcher after a while. I told Dmitri I didn't mind because I could sit in the garden of our house in France with a glass of and think of the remaining competitors slaving over hot keyboards. . Dmitri, of course, won and got lumbered with being the Editor!

Oh really??? This competitive underworld is even more complex than I realised.

I really hope you set it up again. I have a lurid fascination for watching people being in worlds I know would kill me.

Hi Both
It’s good to be back and thanks for the comments.
It would be wonderful to run the Stretcher, or something like it, again.
(I don’t remember who came up with the name - GB, possibly? It probably came from the expectation that the challenges would extend their participants, but it was certainly pretty tough, so I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if one or two of them exited in ambulances!)
This also gives me a chance to apologise to mvp for giving “For My Son” 5 out of 10. It was, and is, way better than that. I am ashamed of my pedantry. It’s not as if I’ve been a stickler for the rules for the rest of my life.
I can recall the flurry of e-mails as we picked the eventual winner (as well as Dmitri, Danny B and Tibley Bobley contested the final). It felt kind of unfair to give it to Dmitri, even if he obviously deserved it. I’d made a feeble attempt to contrive some kind of handicapping system, so that all the writers could be judged against their own best work rather than simply against each other. It all got too complicated though, so we never worked out a way to stop the inevitable.
There would be a good way to stop him winning again though. If there is to be a Stretcher II, I propose Dmitri for Head Judge.

Thanks, Pinn.

I was a bit miffed about 'For My Son', because the poem mattered to me.

I look forward to Stretcher 2. From afar, naturally.